10.14.2010

I have been having difficulty learning kanji, as I wrote in my previous post, but this time I have a solution. I want to learn kanji not as isolated characters, but rather how I might see them in a sentence; my goal is to learn how to read. Adam Rotmil suggested that I use paragraphs and dialogues to practice learning kanji in context.

My strategy:

Below is a Japanese dialogue that I am using to learn kanji. I know all the vocabulary, but I don't know any of their kanji. I start with the raw dialogue and read through it the best I can. I usually don't know them all. I then extract the sentences with kanji and subtitle them in hiragana. After, I focus on entire words using kanji, notated with hiragana and given an English translation; NO ROMAJI. And finally, I review the entire list of words used. For more practice, I created a lesson on Smart.fm. Kanji Focus Mode really makes a difference.

Notice that sometimes vocabulary items are repeated. I figure the more they are used, the more frequent I'll see them while reading.

10.09.2010

I want to learn kanji. I've already tried and failed a few times. But this time, I know I can do it.

I have a friend taking a Japanese class right now and it frustrates me to see how quickly she's able to pick up kanji. She'll be reading over some Japanese and say, "Oh, I know this one. It means...". Sure, I know the word when she says it, but I could never pull the character out of a sentence.

My problem:

Learning kanji is boring and putting it in use is a challenge.

I find the traditional way of learning kanji, a massive stack a flash cards with a single kanji on each, to be daunting at the very least. This seems strange to me because a single kanji has numerous readings and a multitude of related meanings.

My solution:

Learn kanji, not by the character itself, but by the words that they are used in. To see this in action, view Wired Kanji - Lesson 1.

I am able to have a basic conversation in Japanese and have a large enough vocabulary (with the help of a dictionary) to convey my thoughts through writing (with the help of a computer). I know all these words, their sounds and their meanings, yet I don't know the kanji that represents them.

Working with the words I already know, I can learn their kanji how they appear in a sentence.

For example:

私は新しい雑誌を読んでいます。

わたし は あたらしい ざっし を よんでいます。

I am reading a new magazine.

I would learn the kanji for:

私 - わたし (I)

新しい - あたらしい (new)

雑誌 - ざっし (magazine)

読んでいます - よんでいます (reading)

Notice that each vocabulary item has a specific meaning. Some might be a single kanji, others might be multi-kanji pairs or a mix of kanji and hiragana. Yet, this is exactly how I would see them while reading.

I don't think there is a specific tool for learning kanji this way but I could use a list of the most common words used in Japanese writing. I also started a list of all the words I knew in Japanese, when I first began learning and it contains many basic words and phrases (when I went to Japan, I couldn't keep up). And as another tool, I purchased a handful of children's books written in Japanese from Book Off, that are written in kanji with furigana (notation in hiragana).